"Jazz music is all about 'we,' not 'me,' " toasted Hancock. "And jazz, like life, is all about sharing."

And that was just the tip of this trombone.

Gone was the usual fussy format of a formal dinner with assigned seating. Instead, author Robert Mailer Anderson, the SFJazz Gala chairman extraordinaire who was resplendent in a hot-pink Tom Ford dinner jacket, led 700 guests in the art of having fun.

"This building is our home," said Anderson, who, with his wife, Nicola Miner, was a stalwart supporter in achieving this dream of a stand-alone cultural center. "So instead of standing around in a tent, this is definitely a house party."

The swinging soiree also raised more than $1.4 million for SFJazz educational and artistic programs. And SFJazz High School All-Star bassist Logan Kanenot only received the SFJazz Education Award but an anonymous donor also gifted the teen with a new stand-up bass.

In fact the 700-seat Robert N. Miner Auditorium was lousy with talent: Taking turns onstage was the superb SFJazz Collective, songbird Paula West and the All-Stars followed by a rollicking post-party starring sets by Charles Bradleyand Booker T. Jones with a special appearance (thanks to Anderson, who flew her in) by Dorothy Moore, whose song brought Bradley to tears.

He also toasted Anderson with a fond adieu - the longtime trustee and dedicated gala chairman (who expertly increased this gala's funds and fun), decamps in August to Paris for a yearlong foray. Anderson will work on his next novel while his children attend school and his wife, Nicola, plots her academic path having just received her Mills College master's.

Anderson then cranked up that ancient phonograph and asked for silence as Billie Holidaycrooned the aching strains of "I'll Be Seeing You."

"From this magic box," said Anderson, looking from the Victrola out on the full house that jazz built, "to this magic box. SFJazz is how we live, and this is where we can create."